Oh Melanie Amaro, we hardly knew ye. Despite being crowned the winner of the first season of The X Factor (US) in December 2011, the unfortunate singer has yet to release her Truly debut album and during the last few days, she suffered a serious blow to her budding career: she has been quietly removed from the Epic Records roster.
Although it has yet to be officially confirmed, all signs point toward the possibility that Amaro has been axed by Epic Records. This development is particularly shocking because she was awarded a high profile $5 million contract with the label after winning The X Factor and she never got the chance to release an album.
Truly was initially set for release in spring 2012 but after numerous delays, the set has been postponed indefinitely. On the other hand, the season two winner of The X Factor, Tate Stevens, will release his debut album on April 23rd of this year, and several runner-ups from Amaro’s time on the show, such as Marcus Canty and Rachel Crow, have already issued their own records.
Amaro released multiple singles from Truly - “Don’t Fail Me Now”, “Love Me Now” and “Long Distance” – but they all bombed on the charts. Her failure to strike a chord with her target audience has even led her mentor, Simon Cowell, to seemingly distance himself from her in the media.
The real issue with Amaro had little to do with her obvious talent. Rather, her team simply didn’t know how to market her to young music fans who no longer demand music from big-haired, big-voiced divas. How could an artist similar to Jordin Sparks, who can’t score a hit for herself, compete with edgier acts like Rihanna?
We live the Visual Age of communications and Amaro’s appeal simply couldn’t connect with the current generation of consumers. Yes, Adele isn’t anybody’s supermodel either but at least her music has a raw enough sound to stir fans of multiple generations to buy her music. Amaro, however, put forward sugary sweet records that even young Disney fans wouldn’t buy.
Hopefully, Epic Records gives her the time to regroup and rebrand before officially giving her the boot. It would be such a shame to witness such a talented singer fade away because she has a great voice. She simply needs to learn how to put it to good use on something other than Demi Lovato reject songs.